The House Armed Services Subcommittee on Terrorism and Unconventional Threats focused its attention Thursday on the threat Iran poses to US security. The central question for Chairman Jim Saxton (R-N.J.) is whether Iran “is advancing the lethal nexus of [weapons of mass destruction] and terrorism.” Saying Iran “presents an array of challenges to our national security,” he advocates an “innovative” response but “not one that necessarily involves a military component.” That plays well with Kenneth M. Pollack of the Brookings Institute, who told the subcommittee that from outside Iran “looks like a tough nut to crack,” but inside it has “important fissures.” Exploiting those fissures politically and economically, he says, could provide “a reasonable prospect of derailing Iran’s drive for nuclear weapons.”
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.